ValidationWorld Community Grid is a public distributed computing project. This means that work is being sent to computers that are outside the control of World Community Grid. Most computers that perform this work are reliable. However, there are a few computers that are not reliable due to things such as users over-clocking their machines, memory errors, disk errors, CPU errors or viruses being present on the machine. This means that the results returned need to be validated to make sure that they represent the correct answer. We have configured BOINC so that the results from at least four computers calculate the same result before it is accepted as the correct result. This ensures the integrity of the data returned to the scientists.

If you go to your Result Status Page you can see the status of validation. Here are the definitions of the statuses:

* Work In Progress - This means that one of your computers is currently working on it * Error - Some event occurred to keep the result from finishing properly. This could be due to the user canceling the result, a BOINC error or a science application error. * No Reply - The result was not returned to the server by the time it was due. * Pending Validation - The result was returned to the server but there have not been enough results for that workunit returned to the server yet for validation to be attempted * Valid - The result was returned to the server and was equal to the majority of results returned for the workunit. * Invalid - The result was returned to the server and was not found to be equal to the majority of results returned for the workunit. * Inconclusive - The result was returned to the server and validation was attempted but the system could not determine which results it should consider to be the valid ones. New results were sent out for this workunit and validation will be attempted again when those results are returned. * Too Late - The result was returned to the server a long time after it was due and so no credit was granted. * Other - The most common reason for this status is that the BOINC server decided that the workunit should be sent out to another computer but prior to the workunit actually being sent again, the workunit was validated.